What the hell is ‘Twilight?’

I pride myself in being in the know with pop culture, but I’ve been oblivious to this series and soon-to-be adaptation until a few weeks ago. Is it really going to be the monster hit the rags are making it sound like?

For once, I’m totally in the dark, dear readers. I’ll be picking up a copy from the local Burbank library this evening to see what all the fuss is about (naturally, the children’s bookstore I work in is sold out).

I mostly just want to know if I should expect a return to form for Catherine Hardwicke, who I thought made a very promising debut with “Thirteen,” a very interesting follow-up with “Lords of Dogtown,” and then one of the worst movies I’ve ever had to sit through: “The Nativity Story”. She seems keen on telling stories about teens and their trials and tribulations, I’ll give her that.

Anyone care to illuminate me? Is this really the next “Harry Potter?” Is Catherine Hardwicke going to live up to the promising start she had or continue to fizzle out in boring work-for-hire productions? Are the books even worth my time?

10 responses so far

I too pride myself on being “in the loop” but was left scratching my head with this one. Of course, I also had never heard of “Gossip Girl”. I have seen “Thirteen” though, and found it to be poorly and offensively directed.

I’m not saying I thought “Thirteen” was any sort of career defining work – I’m just saying that it made me interested in what might follow, which is more than I can say for most debuts. I liked “Dogtown” (loved Ledger), but I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever be interested in another Hardwicke film again.

After I finish the book, I’ll take a look at the trailer at see what all the fuss is about.

I’d never heard of these either until a year or so ago, but the books sell like hotcakes. From what teenage girls have told me, it isn’t exactly a Buffy thing or a Harry Potter thing. I think its appeal is more like the girls who saw “The Titanic” over and over, pumping it’s box office up. It’s “doomed romance” for teenage girls.

It appears to be a kind of interior musing on sex and romance, so the dialogue is more private but impassioned. It’s “their” thing, so there’s a definite ownership factor. I think it’ll be the kind of movie where the response to it is where the action is, rather than on the screen.

Despite the lurid covers, the girls and guys in it are “good”, good kids, and I guess there’s a big readership for that, for readers who are tired of sleazy rich kid stories, and want to think how someone their age could be “good”. (It IS written by a Morman). I’m somewhat ambivalent about it, myself. I’m not really sure what the cultural implications are, not without reading it – please don’t make me.

I love Thirteen like a promising film (It’s not a perfect film but good) with fantastic performances by Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter (Deserving Oscar Nomination) and I like The Lords of Dogtown especially for Heath Ledger, America Ferrera and Emile Hirsch; but I don’t know how would be that film especially with a polemic topic like vampires… The Nativity Story was the deception of Hardwicke.

Interesting that EW said this is one of the best sci fi books and if the film is good as the book, they think Kirsten Stewart has an oscar Worthy role…

In terms of crazy fans? Yes. In terms of quality? No way. The books are very much in the “guilty pleasure” catergory. They’re cheesy and badly written and I expect the film will be the cinematic equivelant.

I’ve read two of the three currently released books and I think they’re okay. They’re definitely tailored for the female audiences, but there are a few lessons here and there. I’ve heard tons of girls are drooling over this movie.

I actually think it’s going to strike gold in terms of box office. The repeated viewings factor will come in. In my country, there’s a petition to have it released earlier than its supposed January 8, 2009 release date (to somewhere closer to the US release date).